The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to jjr2001 For This Useful Post:

What a great way to put to work that lonely piece of brass bar. It's been sitting on your stock rack for half your lifetime waiting for that special job. And the great part about that is it can still be available for the future emergency. Perhaps a bit hard to get into a collet an somewhat work hardened on the faces. Then after it's cut off too short to fit your hand you can make another one out of a chunk of steel bar and abscent a functioning lathe leave it to rust enough to get a rough surface you can coat with bright paint as a grip and flatten and square the faces on a belt sander. Ed Weldon

The Following User Says Thank You to Jon For This Useful Post:

JR must be wealthy in order to commit that much expensive brass to a project where mass is more important than appearance. Nevertheless, all that brass makes a very pretty hander. Might want to think about making a nylon or similar cap to slip on one end when you don't want to mar the hammer and/or the surface on which you're tapping.

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to mklotz For This Useful Post:

I love brass. Not wealthy but I did hit a few home runs on the bay. I have bought brass cutoffs
and other surplus pieces for less than $3.00 per pound. Some of them were rather large hex
cutoffs up to 4" from flat to flat and 4 or 5 inches long. Sure, takes some time to cut it on
the band saw and then clean it up on the mill but well worth the effort. Someones scrap is
somebody's treasure. I have a scrap metal place near by that buys the swarf so it is a win win.

Right now that brass is very handy for making parts for my model steam engine that will never
see steam but will run on air pressure.

I still have hammers I need to make one of these days. One will be of the type with replaceable faces. Ok, back to the shop!

Did I hear you say "model steam engine run on air pressure"? Those, along with atmospheric and Stirling engines, have been my hobby for quite a while. Although I've built a boiler works, it's far more convenient (and safer) to run them with an airbrush compressor. Here are a couple of samples of my work...

Is it practical to make a hammer that converts to a palm hammer simply by removing the handle?

I think you could but like Marv posted in the "dead blow palm hammer" it needs to be long enough so you don't pinch your hand when using it.
The other thing with using brass or nylon for the surface is protection of the item being hammered. Also for punches you reduce the chance of knocking off a little chip of steel and either sparking or having it fly to the eye!

I like the idea of lead shot for the weight. I was wondering if solid lead poured into a brass head would work as well as shot?